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Tuvshintugs Batchimeg vs Alexander Fishbein
"Cold Winter Knights" (game of the day Jan-04-2017)
United States Championship (2006), San Diego, CA USA, rd 1, Mar-02
Sicilian Defense: Richter-Rauzer. Classical Variation (B64)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
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Mar-04-06  dakgootje: a pair of die-hard knights ;-)

Game were you can learn a LOT about how to play with 2 knights vs 2 bishops! Black must have been very annoyed by those knights, probably black thought the bishop were better, as normal, even though the knights were annoying and thus didnt want to trade one of them for a knight

Mar-04-06  david88: Black should have exchanged the kingside pawns or block them up so bishop can take it and then sack each bishop for each pawn leaving white with two knights and no pawns and unable to checkmate and enuring a draw.
Mar-04-06  ReikiMaster: Actually <ricardolopez> after rook exchange in move 41 white had 2 knights and 5 pawns against black's 2 bishops and 4 pawns. I think <david88> has the right idea - since white is focused on progress on the queenside, black should have attacked the kingside pawns. Those knights would have felt much colder!
Mar-04-06  McCool: Survey Time. What would you rather have, Two Knights ♘♘ or two Bishops ♗♗ ?
Mar-04-06  backyard pawn: 20..., Bh4 seems like a mistake to me. He doesn't protect the pawn on f4 which White captures, and then the same bishop is force to move 2 moves later, preventing his recapturing White's e-pawn. The result of all this is Black has to play the rest of the game a pawn down, and White parlays his queenside majority into a win, with the help of very impressive knight play.
Mar-04-06  Mating Net: <McCool> <Survey Time> It totally depends on the position. This game is a textbook example of a position that favors the 2 stallions. See my earlier post on this page.

Right off the cuff, without knowing anything about the position, I would take the Bishop pair. Mainly because it is much easier for a Bishop to capture a Knight & the long range potential of the Bishop.

Mar-04-06  Pawsome: So, the young Mongol follows in the footsteps of the greatest conqueror of them all, who, thanks in large measure to his skillful use of horses, overran Asia and a big chunk of Europe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghi...
Mar-04-06  CapablancaFan: We all need to keep in mind that the knight/bishop match up all depends on the position. Generally closed postions favor knight and open positions favor bishops. Capablanca pulled off something simular to this game years ago.Capablanca vs Yates, 1924
Mar-04-06  kevin86: This game seems to violate the rule that bishops are superior to knights in the ending;the knights dominate the bishops at every turn and the horses really sink in their teeth. The bishops only seem to be able to lick their wounds,not inflict any on white.
Mar-04-06  PaulLovric: first time here for over a week, java script fixed, first game looked at and i can only say a repeat of: <CeeFoR: Brilliant!> bloody brilliant ending
Mar-04-06  alcappacino: Excellent use of the knights to block the bishops! Very impressive.
Mar-04-06  Knight13: Compare this game to this game: Bird vs Steinitz, 1866.
Mar-05-06  cesarbt: We're not surprised at Batchimeng's performance - she's a regular at the Mechanic's Chess Club in San Francisco (chessclub.org) in their Tuesday Night Marathon tournaments where I play (GM Yermolinsky is the GM in Residence and IM Donaldson is the Director of the Mechanics Chess Club) - her trainer is IM Ganbold Odondoo and this game is a prime example of what she does on a regular basis against 2250+ competition at Mechanic's!
Mar-05-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  WannaBe: Yermolinsky, cool guy, I enjoyed my meeting with him a lot! Very very friendly. Did I mention that he's a very cool guy?! =)
Jan-21-09  WhiteRook48: COOL GAME!! I can't believe Black lost with the ♗♗ against White's ♘♘
Jan-04-17  AlicesKnight: Two Knight, Two Knight, won't be just any Knight.... not grammatical, but the game confounds general thinking about NN v. BB. Black seemed too slow getting across and passed up chances to break up the N team.
Jan-04-17  The Kings Domain: White's name is just as fun as the game.
Jan-04-17  Once: This isn't just a 2N vs 2B game. It is also about grabbing a pawn and hanging onto it grimly to the end of the game.

The crunch position for me comes after 20. Nd5


click for larger view

Fritzie calls this dead level, but I bet white was more comfortable than black. Black can't protect his advanced f4 pawn and he is threatened with the ugly tripled pawns after 21. Nxf6+ gxf6. In the game, black gave up his f4 pawn with 20. Bh4. White then nursed this slender pawn majority through to the endgame 50 moves later.

Instead, Fritzie finds this continuation: 20...Bc6 21. Bxf6+ gxf6 22. Rf1 Bb5 23. b3 Bxc4 24. bxc4


click for larger view

White is about to win the same weak f4 pawn as before, but the difference now is that his own pawns are very weak. Fritzie calls this duck-egg drawn (0.00) and it's hard to disagree.

So yes the 2N vs 2B battle was fun and unusual, but let's not forget that those two knights were shepherding a pawn advantage. That helps to negate the usual benefits from having the bishop pair.

Jan-04-17  Ironmanth: A fantastic fight down the long stretch of 2 N vs. 2B. Well played by White. Thanks for this one. Happy New Year to all at chessgames, and all readers!
Jan-04-17  kevin86: The two knights win! But no without the two extra pawns.
Jan-04-17  ninja warrior: 66. Nc6+ Ka8 67.Ne8 forcing Bxc5+ would have been my choice, but excellent game nonetheless. :)
Jan-04-17  ChessHigherCat: Anybody looking for a good definition of "tenacious" should observe how white held on to his "blankety-blank" extra pawn the whole game
Jan-04-17  morfishine: 2 Knights frequently beats 2 Bishops, its all about position, which is all about relevant squares. The Knights worked the relevant squares
Jan-04-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  maxi: I have a suspicion that Black was still dreaming of a win. To go for the draw it was necessary to exchange one or two of the Kingside pawns, then threat the sac of one or two of the bishops, keeping in mind that two knights cannot mate.
Jan-05-17  Abdel Irada: ∞

<So yes the 2N vs 2B battle was fun and unusual, but let's not forget that those two knights were shepherding a pawn advantage. That helps to negate the usual benefits from having the bishop pair.>

I've some familiarity with the weaker side of that matchup from numerous blitz games against Gjon Feinstein's Modern Defense. <rueful smile>

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